In-Character
Full Name: Algernon Everett RowleNicknames: None that he’d answer to.
Birthdate: December 23, 1815
Current Age: 77 Years
Gender: Male
Occupation: Member of the Wizengamot & Investor
Reputation: 10
Anything less is unacceptable.Residence: Wellingtonshire, Hogsmeade / “The Castle,” Scotland
Hogwarts House: Gryffindor
Wand: Fir, 13 3/4 in., rigid, dragon heartstring
Blood Status: Pureblood
Social Class: Upper
Family:
Wife. Belinda Rowle nee Crabbe (1824-1884)Appearance:
Son. Robert Rowle (b. 1847) and Family
Son. Philip Rowle (b. 1850) and Family
Daughter. Miranda Rowle (b. 1854)
Daughter. Seraphina —- nee Rowle (b. 1860) and Family
Son. Edwin Rowle (b. 1863)
Algernon also has parents and a sister, but they’re either dead or irrelevant to him.
Tall and relatively lean for his age, Algernon’s appearance can best be described as neat and tidy, and perhaps fastidious to the edge of obsessive. His hair, though once brown, has long since gone completely grey, though his eyes are a near enough color match to what his hair used to be. He is right handed, mostly, though he does favor his left side in a way that might suggest that he isn’t naturally right-handed.History:
Personality:Childhood (1815-1827)
Being born the only son to the prestigious Rowle family was, from the very start, a burden that, while Algernon did not exactly choose it, he always knew was his to bear. If he sometimes wished that he had someone else to help him shoulder the burden, he kept this very much to himself—-no one likes a whiner, and, frankly, no one was asking his opinion, anyway.
There was his sister, of course, born when Algernon was barely old enough to remember it, and disappointingly not followed by any more children. But she was a girl and therefore not subject to their father’s expectations. Algernon was on his own, but that was all right. If there was one thing he’d come to understand more clearly than anything it was that other people only made things more messy.
Hogwarts (1827-1834)
Given his high strung nature, and, according to at least one of his classmates, tendency to be “a bastard know-it-all,” it was, perhaps, unsurprising that Algernon was not terribly popular at school. He instead threw himself whole-heartedly into academics where, even if he wasn’t naturally more gifted than average, he at least made up for it with his tenacity, worrying at his schoolwork like a dog at a bone until it gave him the results he desired. ‘
When, at the end of seven years, he graduated with near-perfect NEWT scores, Algernon told himself it was worth it. As it happens, lying to himself was a skill he honed very early on.
Young Adulthood (1834-1845)
The fact that Algernon didn’t run himself into a nervous breakdown is a minor miracle, given how driven he forced himself to be. He entered the Ministry after graduation, taking a position in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, in the Beings Division. It had been his own choice, in so much as it was the department that suited him best out of the options his father had told him were acceptable.
Life wasn’t without its bumps in the road, of course. There was the trouble with the laudanum—-or rather, the trouble with Algernon’s tendency to rely on it until his father came in to nip that in the bud. It did lead to the older Mr. Rowle having a firmer hand in the young man’s life, and Algernon told himself that he was grateful, not resentful, of his father’s guidance. It was all for the best, anyway. His feelings on the matter didn’t really matter.
For the next two decades, Algernon focused on his career, and was rewarded with a promotion in 1842, followed by another to the Assistant Head of the entire department a few years later. That same year, he was introduced to Belinda Crabbe at a society event, and while it was never a love match, she ticked all the boxes for him on the sort of wife he should have, and they were married in 1845, just before New Year.
Early Marriage & Fatherhood (1846-1863)
Algernon didn’t love his wife, but they got on amicably enough and Belinda proved to be a socialite beyond reproach, and so he was satisfied. She also deferred to him in all things that truly mattered, which was the best recipe for marital bliss, as far as he was concerned. If his wife had opinions to the contrary, she was wise enough to keep them to herself.
News that his wife was expecting their first child was somewhat dampened by the deaths of Algernon’s parents, both taken by the same late summer fever and leaving Algernon as head of the family. A role he was quite literally born for. Although he entered mourning as was expected, Algernon wouldn’t say he truly mourned their loss. His mother had been the quintessential society mother, distant and dutiful, and his father had deemed fit to control nearly all aspects of his son’s life to better mold him into the man Algernon had to be. He didn’t resent them, but he also didn’t quite not resent them.
Belinda, excellent wife that she is, bears him five children over the next decade and a half—-three boys and two girls. At last, the family’s future is secure. A lesser man might have taken this as his sign to relax, but Algernon, although he’s grown less high strung with age, has never been anything if not vigilant.
His career at its height, with his promotion to Head of the DRMC, and later an appointment to the Wizengamot, and his family seemingly set on the right path, the future is promising and bright.
Or it is, anyway, until his children threaten to ruin everything.
The Curse Years (1863-1893)
In his defense, Algernon really did think that he had his children’s best interests at heart. He might not have been the most doting father, but he liked to think that he wanted what was best for them all. Deep down. It was just that what they wanted was, by and large, wrong. And, worse than wrong, it was potentially disastrous.
He only truly experienced regret with Miranda, whose greatest crime was a perceptiveness she could not help through her Sight. Perhaps if she’d been a bit older, he could have at least tried to explain that he would do anything to preserve the family legacy, that the family needed to come before anything so fleeting as affection or the wants of the individual.
Perhaps. Or perhaps not, because as the years wear on, and Algernon finds his hand forced by each of his children in turn, he does not bother to explain himself to any of the others. And by the time its Edwin’s turn, he’s all but forgotten whatever moral quandary he should have had at performing an unforgivable curse once, let alone five times.
He tries, at times, to lie to himself that they are all happier this way, and when that doesn’t quite work, he decides it doesn’t matter. The years march on, and he sees his children settled—-forcibly so—-and the Rowle family grow, though the anxiety of legacy never really fades. There is still so much he cannot control, despite all of his efforts. Belinda dies in the Laughing Plague, and Philip loses his son a few short years later, and Algernon calls what he feels grief instead of what it really is—-anger and frustration at the only things truly beyond his grasp. He nonetheless cites these events as his reasons for retiring from the Ministry after a long and diligent career, and settles into his life in the country, where he expects things will remain relatively unchanged until a time when it is appropriate for him to shuffle off this mortal coil.
Unfortunately for all involved, that’s not quite what happens. A stroke isn’t enough to take the man out, and now it’s everyone’s problem.
CONTROLLING. TENACIOUS. PERFECTIONIST. PURIST.
Out-of-Character
Name: Steph
![[Image: TrSGeWR.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/TrSGeWR.jpg)